Think You've Been Here, Done That? Thing Again.

This post is for all you sophisticates who think you've done DC and seen it all before.
Think again.
The past few years have brought a slew of new points of interest to the DC area.

Among them:
World War II Memorial: This monument to the Greatest Generation is impressively grand. A nice place to walk around. Conveniently located between the Washington and Lincoln memorials. Doesn't require a lot of time. http://www.wwiimemorial.com/
Pentagon Memorial: I haven't even been here yet. This is an area outside the Pentagon dedicated to those who died there on 9/11. There is a stone bench for each of the victims, each with its own reflecting pool. Chris found it a very moving place. http://www.whs.mil/Memorial/index.cfm Close to home.
Air Force Memorial: Also nearby in Arlington, a nice place to spend half an hour. http://www.airforcememorial.org/
National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art Museum: two museums that share a newly renovated historic building in downtown DC. Away from thre rest of the Mall museums, but easy to get to on Metro. I haven't been there yet. (But Mark's been there on a field trip to see George Washington Carver's portrait!) http://www.npg.si.edu/inform/visit.html

We in DC quake at the thought of paying for museums, and there are a gazillion free offerings, but I'd be doing a disservice not to mention two costly-but-way-cool additions to the DC lineup:

International Spy Museum. Fasincating stuff for adults and kids -- for example, my kids loved crawling through the heating ducts over the museum floor to conduct their own espionage! But it's pricey! $18 for adults, $15 for ages 5-11. It does fill up, so best bet is to purchase timed-entry tickets in advance online. Plan to devote several hours. I'd say good for ages 5 and up. http://www.spymuseum.org/plan/ticketing.php
Newseum. Yes, I know I'm biased in favor of news. But this place is seriously cool. In a fabulous new venue on Pennsylvania Avenue. I took my kids, and worried they'd be bored, but we ended up closing down the place. They couldn't get enough of it. Lots of fun interactive things to do. Kids can tape a TV standup and keep the video. There's a 4D movie we watched over and over. A moving 9/11 display/movie. Lots more. Again, pricey! $20 for adults, $13 for ages 7-18. Six and under free. http://www.newseum.org/

I could go on and on. But I won't _ at least not right now.